Halsbury's Laws of England Old Edition: What Is It Worth?

A long row of Halsbury's Laws of England looks as if it must be worth a lot, and some sets still are. Others are worth much less than they look, and the spines on your shelf tell you most of what you need to know about which kind you have.

This guide goes through what decides the worth of an old set, so you know where yours stands before you ask anyone for a valuation.

Is an old Halsbury's Laws set worth anything?

It can be, and the edition decides most of it. Halsbury's Laws of England is an encyclopaedia of the law of England and Wales, so it is useful to a lawyer for as long as the law in it is still the law. That is why its publisher, LexisNexis Butterworths, keeps it current with an updating service every month and every year.

Think of it like a road atlas. An atlas from twenty years ago still shows most of the roads, but nobody plans a journey on it, because the new roads are missing and some of the old ones have changed. A recent Halsbury's that has been kept up to date is the atlas a lawyer still reaches for. An edition from the 1950s is the old atlas: interesting to leaf through, and little help in finding your way today.

So a fourth or fifth edition set, reasonably complete and in decent condition, is the kind law library buyers look for. The law in the first three editions is decades out of date, so whether anyone can take one of those depends on the set in front of you.

What is the latest edition of Halsbury's Laws of England?

The fifth edition is the latest. Its publication began in 2008, and it runs to 103 volumes.

It did not arrive all at once. Some of its volumes carry a letter, such as 15A, and our guide to why a fifth edition set has volumes like 14A and 15A explains them. From spring 2008, the new volumes that replaced old ones were published as the fifth edition, so the change came volume by volume. That is why a set kept up after 2008 can hold fourth and fifth edition volumes side by side. A mixed shelf like that shows someone went on buying the new volumes, which counts in the set's favour.

Which edition is your set?

Look along the spines, and open the first volume at its title page. The five editions came out like this:

• First edition: 31 volumes, 1907 to 1917
• Second edition: 37 volumes, 1932 to 1941
• Third edition: 43 volumes, 1952 to 1964
• Fourth edition: 56 volumes, 1973 to 1987
• Fifth edition: published since 2008, in 103 volumes

A first edition may not carry Halsbury's name in its title at all. It was published as The Laws of England, with the Earl of Halsbury, a former Lord Chancellor, as its editor-in-chief, and it was the second and later editions that took his name. You can see the first volume of 1907 on the Internet Archive and compare its title page with yours.

What decides what a Halsbury's set is worth?

Once you know the edition, the rest comes down to how complete the set is, whether its updates are with it, and what condition it is in. These are the same things that decide the worth of most old law books, and our guide to whether old law books are worth anything covers them for law reports and practitioner texts too.

How complete the set is

Halsbury's is arranged by subject, in alphabetical order across the volumes. A missing volume is therefore a missing piece of the law. If the volume covering companies has gone, the set cannot answer a question about companies, and whoever owns it next has to track that volume down to make the set whole. That is why gaps lower what a set is worth, and why a buyer will ask which volumes are there.

The index and tables count as part of the set too. A Halsbury's set has a consolidated index, which is a subject index to the whole work, and consolidated tables listing the cases and statutes it mentions. They are how a reader finds the right paragraph among dozens of volumes, so a set without them is like a library without its catalogue.

Whether the updates are with it

Each main volume is printed once and then stands on the shelf while the law moves on. The updates fill that gap, and the University of Oxford's law faculty guide to Halsbury's Laws lists three kinds. The Cumulative Supplement comes out every year in two volumes and updates the main volumes. The Current Service is two looseleaf binders, filled with pages issued through the year to record changes in the law. And the Annual Abridgment is a single volume each year summing up that year's legal developments.

The guide warns that the main volumes can be several years old, so checking the Cumulative Supplement is crucial. If the supplements and binders are on your shelf, photograph them with the set and note the year on the latest supplement, because that year tells a buyer how far forward your set reaches.

What condition it is in

Condition matters for Halsbury's as it does for any set. Water damage, smoke damage, mould and loose or broken bindings all lower what a set is worth, because the next owner needs volumes that open, read cleanly and stay together on the shelf. Library stamps and labels are worth mentioning too. A clear photo of the worst volumes tells a buyer more than a photo of the best.

Do reissue volumes count?

Yes, they are part of the set. A reissue is a fresh version of one volume within the same edition, published when enough has changed in that area of law to need it. It replaces the older version of that volume, much as a new page replaces an old one in a ring binder.

The fourth edition had many of them. Wildy & Sons, the legal bookseller, records that the fourth edition was published in 56 volumes between 1973 and 1987 and now runs to 80, with reissues from 1988 onwards. So a fourth edition set with more than 56 volumes on the shelf is normal.

Reissues help a set's worth, because each one brings its subject closer to today's law. If the older volume that a reissue replaced is still on the shelf beside it, leave both where they stand and include them in your photos, so the valuation sees exactly what is there.

Why the price of a new set is no guide to an old one

It is tempting to look up what a new set costs and work back from there. That price buys the current law, and the service that keeps it current is paid for on top. Wildy's listing for the fifth edition set shows how that works: the two looseleaf binders are charged every year, and the Cumulative Supplement, the Annual Abridgment and each reissued volume are charged for separately when they come out. An old set has none of that service any more, and its law stops at its last update.

The Law Society's guide to disposing of a law library explains the two kinds of figure you may come across. An insurance valuation is the cost of replacing the books. A sale valuation is what you could expect to make if you sell them. Insurance valuations tend to be higher, so if a figure for your library came from an insurance schedule, it is the first kind.

If you are an executor clearing a late lawyer's library and need a formal valuation for probate, the same guide names Bloomsbury Auctions and Wildy & Sons as organisations that value collections for insurance, auction or probate.

Is an old Halsbury's set a rare book?

The Law Society's guidance is that legal books are more likely to be valuable if they were printed before 1800, and for those it suggests an auctioneer with experience of selling legal material. Every edition of Halsbury's Laws was printed in 1907 or later, more than a century after that line, so its worth comes back to the edition, the volumes and the condition. If something much older shares the same shelves, include it in your photos and say so.

Can you donate an old Halsbury's set instead?

Check the rules before you pack anything. The International Law Book Facility, a charity that gives second-hand legal books to not-for-profit organisations, accepts individual volumes of Halsbury's Laws only if they are no more than ten years old, and every volume of the first four editions is older than that. Our guide to donating law books sets out who takes what.

Who buys old Halsbury's sets?

Law library buyers like us. We buy the fourth and fifth editions of Halsbury's Laws of England, and our page on selling Halsbury's Laws of England sets out what to tell us about your set.

Tell us which volumes are there and whether the supplements and binders are with them, and we value the set for free. If you go ahead, we pack all the volumes ourselves from your shelves and collect the set free, anywhere in the UK, and the money for it goes into your bank account.

If yours is a first, second or third edition, include it in your photos and we will tell you whether we can take it. If an early edition turns out to have little resale value, we can talk about collecting it free of charge. If Halsbury's Statutes stands beside it, photograph that too, because it is the companion set and we buy it as well.

Finding out what your set is worth

The quickest way to find out is to show us. Photograph the whole run of volumes so we can read every spine and see any gaps, and add a photo of the latest supplement with its year. If the whole library is going, our checklist for preparing a law library covers the rest. Then attach the photos to our valuation form, or WhatsApp them to 07920 748314, and we will tell you what your Halsbury's is worth to us.